Chutes and Ladders
by Whomping
Summary: Fate, the dodgy tosser, decides that world without chaos is boring. What better way to stir things up then by unceremoniously flinging someone back in time? Starring: LUNA Warning: Take this thing about as seriously as a fart.
1. Chapter 1

**Chutes and Ladders: Part 1**

**A/N** A smart person once told me that people shouldn't write authors notes because nobody cares about what you have to say. I am defying their logic because it made me depressed.

**Preface.**

He lay silently, listening to the whoosh as his breath passed between his slightly parted lips. His gazed was blurry and unfocused, vaguely aimed at the shelf above his small cot inside his cupboard. A spider tickled the small hairs on his leg as it walked down towards his foot.

Harry's mind was magnificently blank, only slightly aware of the mild stinging sensation on his cheek where a bruise was just starting to show. A bead of sweat trickled down his forehead, past the lightning shaped scar and down past his left eyebrow. The tiny droplet got stuck in his eyelashes and he blinked it away as his eye started to feel irritated. Bracing himself using his arms, Harry pushed himself up slightly and peaked through the little ventilation flap on the door. He listened intently.

When he had assured himself that his so called family were asleep, he let himself flop down on his back again.

When he was eight years old, Harry had not yet broken out of his inability to sit still and do nothing for long periods of time, a trait that was mandatory if one wished to live a peaceful life at the Dursleys'. So, to amuse himself and deal with his rather depressing boredom, he had tried to make an object move without touching it.

The Dursleys were very meticulous about never ever allowing Dudley or Harry to see any kind of telly program that had anything to do with magic. This did not have the desired effect though, as it only made Harry even more fascinated by such things when he saw them on the telly over at Mrs Figg's house. Harry, being a very open minded child, did not immediately see why such things should be impossible. Hadn't he himself been able to do things that could be considered abnormal?

There were several examples of instances where Harry had done extraordinary things. He had once, per example, found himself suddenly on a roof when he had been trying to escape Dudley and his gang and most bruises and cuts seemed to heal much faster for him than for other children. Thus, Harry did indeed believe that magic was real.

Now ten years old, Harry had mastered the art of dealing with boredom without getting scolded by his Aunt or Uncle. But he still loved the tingling feeling he experienced every time he did "magic tricks". At first, moving inanimate objects had been very difficult and his success was sporadic. But after two years of practising, he could do it easily.

And so today, as he lay in his cupboard convinced that his relatives were asleep and couldn't catch him in the act, Harry decided to play. He focused his gaze and a lonely sock and willed it to move. The familiar tingling sensation crept up his spine and tickled his nose as he felt it settle in his eyes. The instinct to blink was strong, but he ignored it as he focused even more intently the sock. Slowly, and with what seemed like great reluctance, the sock lifted of the floor and rose upwards. Harry felt the tingling sensation leave his eyes and creep down his right arm were it seemed to build up as if clogged. He recognized this as the signal that his fun was about to end. When the tingling feeling was completely gone from his eyes the sock fell to the ground.

Harry sighed and peered closely at his right arm. All the little hairs on it were raised as if he had rubbed them with a balloon as he had seen Dudley and his friends do on Dudley's eleventh birthday. His own eleventh birthday was in a week or two, but he doubted he would get to play with any balloons. Harry shook his arm to get rid of the tingling feeling and then snuggled in under his covers, falling to sleep.

Fate watched the boy. He was gifted, modest, kind and noble. It didn't matter what time line or what reality Fate looked to, Harry Potter was always the same. It was boring.  
Life was not exciting without pandemonium. It was just dull.

Many think of Fate as an ancient man playing chess with human lives, seeing them as nothing but pawns. That is what he had been, at first. But after an eternity, one grows tired of chess. The game usually ends with everyone dead anyway. Chess is to bloody organized. How do you cause pandemonium within a game that has such strict rules? You can't. It isn't possible.

Thus, Fate had decided to play a new game: Chutes and Ladders. Fate turned away from the reality with the young sleeping boy and focused on another, a boring and old chess game. He picked up the pawns and moved them to his new playing board. With a simple roll of the die, Luna Lovegood stepped onto a chute and was flung back in time.

Fate smiled and redirected his focus onto other games, content with the fact that he had thoroughly messed up the natural flow of things.

**The first summer.**

The hottest day of the summer so far was drawing to a close and a drowsy silence lay over the large, square houses of Privet Drive.  
Most of the inhabitants were draped sleepily over comfortable chairs in well air-conditioned sitting rooms with classes of cold water or juice. This was however, not the case for a particularly lanky kid with a lightning shaped scar on his forehead. He was, at the moment, sleeping quite soundly inside a cupboard under a staircase; exhausted after a long gruelling afternoon spent weeding the garden in the blazing heat. His sleeping was, however, interrupted by the sound of a loud crack, as if someone had broken a bunch of twigs all at once or, in this case, the sound made by someone apparating.

A blond woman, who looked to be in her early twenties, with grey eyes had just appeared quite suddenly in his room. She had a slight confused aura surrounding her and her appearance was frazzled.

As Harry Potter gazed blearily into the glazed eyes of the mysterious woman he felt a slight pressure in his abdomen.

"Excuse me," he said, licking his dry lips. "I need to use the loo."

After he had answered nature's call, he returned and sat down on his bed. The woman was staring out into space.

"Er, hello" Harry said, feeling quite unsure of himself. "Not to be rude or anything, but who are you?"

There was a beat of silence, and then, "I am a figment of your imagination. You are going mad." The woman flapped her arms a bit and wiggled her ears.

Harry blinked.

"Sorry, I've always wanted to do that to someone. My name is Luna Lovegood." The woman said, the corners of her mouth twitching.

"So, I'm not going mad." Harry stated, although it came out a bit more like a question.

Luna stopped laughing and peered at the young boy in front of her curiously. "I don't think so. You shouldn't though. I've gone mad once or twice, it was very relaxing… but I need you to stay sane. I should imagine it would be very hard to defeat Voldermort if one thought one was a lemon."

"A lemon?" Harry asked. He was starting to feel very overwhelmed.

"Well, one would be mad to think one was a lemon, unless you actually_ are_ a lemon of course. But I'm not sure lemons go around thinking about the fact that they are lemons and a lemon certainly isn't going to try and defeat Voldemort. Then again, it would be more prudent to think one was a cucumber since they are always so cool and collected, or so the saying goes. Although, how do we know that cucumbers are always cool and collected? They could very well be as prone to panic attacks as every other vegetable."

Harry opened his mouth to say something, but then he just sighed and closed it again. Luna smiled. "How old are you now?"

Harry blinked. "I just turned eleven."

"Happy belated Birthday! So I suppose you've met Hagrid then?"

Harry nodded assuming that the woman- Luna… er something… Lovewood?- was a friend of Hagrid's . "What did you say about me defeating Voldemort?"

Luna's expression darkened. "Voldemort is the man who gave you that scar."

Harry touched his forehead lightly. "I know. You say his name."

Luna smiled benignly. "Fear of a name only increases fear of the object itself."

"Why are you here?" Harry asked, scratching his nose.

"Do you like stories Harry?" Luna asked. Harry frowned, whoever this Luna person was; she truly sucked at answering questions.

"Yes, I suppose. But how do you know my name? I never told you what it was."

Luna smiled. "I already know your name Harry James Potter. And the story I'm about to tell you is about you and your life." She sat down next to Harry in his bed throwing her arm around his thin shoulders. He stiffened, not used to forms of comfort, but Luna either did not notice or ignored it

"Once upon a time there was an orphan named Tom Riddle. Tom could do things other children couldn't. He could make people hurt if he wanted, and he could talk to snakes." Harry shifted nervously thinking of a certain boa constrictor. "People liked Tom, he had a natural charm that people were drawn to."

Luna turned her head and coughed before continuing her story.

"During the summer before Tom turned eleven a man visited him and told him about a school called Hogwarts. The man, Dumbledore, was a teacher there and wanted Tom to attend the school." Luna squeezed Harry's shoulders. "Anyway, Tom went to school and learned lots of things. He never gained any friends, but he had followers. He called them Death Eaters. He changed his name as well. Very few dare speak his new name." Luna smirked at Harry.

"Anyway, Tom killed lots of people, trying to gain power. There was a war. In the middle of this war, Tom learned about a prophecy concerning him and someone with the power to defeat him. Tom assumed it referred to you and so he went after your family. Your mother sacrificed her life for you and thus she provided you with a protection. Her love for you made it so that you couldn't be touched. Tom, who knows very little about love, did not stop to consider this before trying to blast you into little pieces and thus he was destroyed. You, Harry Potter, are also known as The-Boy-Who-Lived and you are the only known survivor of the killing curse."

Luna stopped talking, unsure of how much she should say. She was breathing heavily.

"This is not common knowledge Harry. People only know that you survived the curse, not why. Be careful about who you trust with this information."

"You seem to know a lot about this." Harry commented suspiciously.

Luna smiled widely. "I know because you told me, before I was rudely hurled back in time."

"Time travel?"

"In your reality, I am ten years old and slightly nutters if I remember correctly. In my reality, or well… in my former reality, I was twenty-one and you were twenty-two years old. You'd defeated Voldemort at the age of eighteen and it was like a huge weight had been lifted off your shoulders. But you were stubbornly hanging on to your guilt and you pushed people away. You were lost, Harry, but you would have figured it out eventually. You have always been strong. But apparently…" Luna huffed and glared upwards. "…Fate is an impatient fellow. Or maybe he was just bored. I don't know."

A chill crept up his spine and Harry, who felt like he had had his world turned upside down, simply nodded absentmindedly before fainting.

When Harry woke up Luna was still sitting on his bed. She beamed at him when she saw that his eyes were open. "You took that remarkably well. So well, in fact, that I am beginning to think that you don't believe me."

Harry scratched his nose. "I do believe you. I would know if you were lying." Luna looked surprised for a minute before frowning. "I didn't know you learnt how to do that this early."

Harry wasn't sure what she meant by that so he didn't comment. "Why did I feel guilty? Did people die because of me?"

Luna looked sad. "You aren't even eleven yet, so I wouldn't burden you with horrors from the future. That would be cruel. But I can assure you that you never hurt anyone innocent."

Harry furrowed his brow. "I'm not a baby!"

Luna smiled. "No Harry, even in your first year you showed courage that went beyond most adults. But at eleven you are not ready to shoulder what you could barely cope with at twenty-two. I will not be responsible for crushing your spirit."

Harry paled. "That bad?"

Luna nodded solemnly. "But never loose hope. Light can always be found even in the darkest of times."

"I'm not sure what I should do." Luna commented after a moments pause.

"What do you mean?" Harry asked.

"Well, I don't know very much about time travel and I have no real plan of action. I can't really change anything because it could all go to hell if I messed up."

Harry felt a bit disgruntled. "So why did you come?"

"Well, technically I didn't mean to."

Harry looked like he didn't know whether to laugh or shout. He settled for neither for both would have been inappropriate.

"Harry," Luna said, her voice sounding serious. "Do you trust me?"

Harry shrugged. "I just met you."

"Well, the Harry I knew was an excellent judge of character. So judge me."

Harry seemed to think for a bit, and then he stared into Luna's eyes. She was startled by the astuteness she saw in his gaze, this was too much like the older Harry for her liking. It felt like he was looking into her very soul. Then he blinked, breaking eye contact.

"You have the potential to be very powerful Harry, power beyond your wildest dreams. But the amazing thing about you is that nothing, not even the lure of power, can sway your heart." Luna said this in a whisper and Harry had to concentrate in order to make out what she was saying. He blushed.

"You say that like you know me really well."

"I do… Or, well, I know the older you."

He seemed to think for a minute. "Yes, I trust you." Harry said. Luna beamed.

"Now I just have to figure out how to help you."

Harry frowned. "Help me with what?"

"Surviving." Luna said dreamily. Harry paled.

Aunt Petunia chose that moment to start pounding on his door, interrupting their conversation. "Get up!"

Harry sighed and Luna patted his back reassuringly.

"Harry before you go, look into my eyes again."

Harry did as he was told but was surprised to see that Luna's eyes were no longer the grey colour they had been earlier, but that they were now swirling orbs of silver. Harry felt himself get lost in the swirls and soon enough his expression turned vacant.

Luna smirked.

"I have hypnotized you Harry. You will believe that this conversation was a weird dream and it will not affect anything you do or say up until our next chat. In the mean time, I have stuff to figure out. When I snap my fingers you will wake from your slumber."

**-ovo-**

Harry had just returned to his cupboard under the stairs, teary-eyed and rubbing a red mark on his cheek that Uncle Vernon had given him after he dropped a mug of hot tea on Vernon's lap, when he saw Luna sitting on his bed. He opened his mouth to say something but closed it again as he lost himself in Luna's silver swirls. "You will remember our last conversation." Luna said and snapped her fingers, her eyes returned to their regular grey.

Harry blinked and looked rather confused for a moment before a look of dawning comprehension graced his face. "Luna!"

"Yes. Now come, let me see what those awful muggles have done to you!" Luna cooed as she pulled Harry down into an awkward half hug, stroking his red cheek. Harry, who had not yet met Mrs. Weasley and therefore was not used to being mothered, blushed as Luna fussed over him. They talked about Harry's trip to Diagon Alley and he showed her his owl, Hedwig, who seemed to be quite taken with the young boy already.

"And your wand?" Luna asked.

Harry told her about how long it had taken him to find the perfect wand and about what Mr. Ollivander had said when he bought it.

"Don't let the fact that Voldemort has a similar wand discourage you Harry, phoenixes are wonderful creatures and you should be happy to have such a spectacular core."

The sat in silence for a while before Luna spoke again. "You are very skinny." She didn't say it accusingly, just as a statement.

Harry shifted uncomfortably. "I think I'll start bringing you food." Luna continued, ignoring Harry's discomfort "And maybe you could do push-ups… You don't have to do very many, maybe 50 a day? I think it would make you feel stronger, especially combined with the extra food."

Harry shrugged.

August passed quickly, with Luna bringing Harry food in the evenings and then talking to him before he went to sleep. Harry came to regard Luna as a close friend and as a mother figure as she often fussed over his health and tried her best to keep him happy and smiling. She amused him with stories of adventures to come and read through his textbooks with him telling him about the finer details of magic and teaching him useful charms and spells. He couldn't practise the spells, due to the Ministry and the law about under age magic, but she gave him a random stick and had him practise the wand movements.

Luna was happy to see that shortly before September 1st, Harry's ribs were no longer visible and that he had grown an inch. He carried himself with a bit more confidence than he had previously. Harry happily told her that he was starting to feel stronger and that he was now doing 60 push-ups every day.

On the last day of August, Luna sat Harry down to have a little chat.

"I have figured out how to help you." Luna started. "I can't interfere with the timeline, not yet at least. This means that you cannot remember me while at Hogwarts and I cannot be present during any important moments, at least not until your fifth year. So, I'll do what I can for you in the summers and then the last day of august every year I'll make you forget. I can make you stronger without mucking anything up, I think, and I can help you with schoolwork. But you wont remember anything I've taught you until after the school year."

Harry rubbed his forehead. "I don't want to forget you. And what do you mean about helping me with school _after_ each year?"

"I'm sorry Harry, but I have to make you forget. I mean that I'll tutor you during the summers, going over everything you've learnt so far and adding to it. I'll be teaching you everything I know but then I'll have to take it all away before you arrive at school as to not inflict suspicion if someone were to notice how advanced you were. When I give you back all your memories at the end of your fifth year, you will be far more advanced then your classmates, hopefully you might even be as good as I am, only without much experience in actual duelling, unless I find a way around the underage magic law. Hmm…  
Anyway, this will give you a better chance of surviving the war. I wont hypnotize away your memories, seeing as that would be very difficult and could, if something went wrong, leave you mentally retarded. Instead I'll use a modified version of a pensive."

Harry frowned. "And this is necessary?"

"Yes."

Harry watched as Luna brought forth a stone basin. She used her wand to draw silver strands from his temple and slowly, Harry felt all his memories of the summer fade away. He panicked a bit before becoming lost in the silvery swirls that were Luna's eyes.

And thus began Harry Potter's first year at Hogwarts.

**(A/N) Justification:**

This story will not be amazingly well written. The grammar won't be perfect and neither will the spelling. The plot is weird and the humor will sometimes be childish. Why? Because I'm 15.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N **You know when someone presses "fast forward" on the remote control and all the movie characters start talking in squeaky voices while moving really quickly and jerkily? Yeah, that pretty much sums up this chapter.

**Lots and lots of accidental magic.**

Harry Potter sighed as he kicked the sand under his swing with the toe of his dusty sneakers. His thoughts were centred on the horrific events of his previous year at Hogwarts school of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

Voldemort was back.

Harry still saw Cedric's face in his dreams and the thought of the Hufflepuff's vacant eyes as he was struck by the green light still made Harry shiver. He could still hear Voldemort laughing, the same sound he heard when Dementors approached him.

Harry growled, anger and frustration rolling off him in waves. He had been told repeatedly that Cedric's death was not his fault. But how could he_ not_ blame himself. And how could he not be repulsed by the fact that his actions had led to his blood being used to revive Voldemort? The Dark Lord had risen again, because of him.

Harry had never been very good at hiding his emotion or reining in his anger. Today was no exception and he wanted an outlet. Harry desperately whished for someone who could shoulder his guilt; someone he could yell at; someone or something he could curse. The frustration he felt was prickling the inside of his skin and he could feel it starting to tickle the backs of his eyes as it always did when he was about to experience accidental magic.

An unnatural wind ruffled his hair and as Harry started to feel that he would burst from anger, it all whooshed out of him in a big burst of magic. The sound of something exploding filled the air and Harry jumped about a foot in the air and whirled around, looking for the source of the sound. The playground was still deserted, but there was now a smoking lump of timber in the middle of it. What had previously been a sandbox was now almost comically deformed.

Harry gaped at it for a few moments. He had many times in his life been privy to accidental magic, although, never on this scale.

Not quite knowing what to do with himself, he decided to do what came naturally. Meaning of course, that it would be easiest to just ignore the incident and pretend it hadn't happened. With shaky legs, Harry stood up and walked briskly away from the place. As he walked, he thought.

He thought of the silent treatment his friends were giving him, of all his unanswered questions regarding Voldemort, of his former Defence against the Dark Arts teacher, of the mysterious absence of deaths since Voldemort had regained his strength, of his godfather and, last but not least, he thought of dinner.

But as his mouth started salivating at the thought of Hogwarts meals he was filled with an unnatural chill, as if the air around him had turned to ice. The previously star speckled sky had turned pitch black and the soothing rustle of trees had grown silent. It was as if someone had thrown a cold, black cloak over Privet Drive.

Harry, whose thoughts had been rather dark before he daydreamed about dinner, did not feel the joy leaving his body as strongly as he had in his third year as he wasn't filled with as much of it as he had been then. But the feeling was still there. Dread filled him as he realized that there were Dementors in Little Whinging.

Harry didn't stop to think about how odd it was that the Demontors had left Azkaban. Instead he ran as fast as he could, hearing nothing but the pounding of his own heart and the soft thump of his feet hitting the ground. But despite his best efforts, the cold still caught up to him and he heard once again the sound of his mother screaming as Voldemort killed her. Summoning all his inner strength, he turned, pulling out his wand as he did so.

The soon to be fifth year student squashed all unpleasant thoughts and focused on his friends. On happiness. On his parents. On his friends. On dinner.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM_"

A brilliant silver stag pounced out of the tip of his wand and charged at the two, cloaked creatures that had been drawing nearer the boy. Instantly the cold that had held him in an iron grip released its hold and he no longer felt despair.

Ignoring the Dementors for a moment, Harry stared slack jawed at his patronus. It was _much_ larger than he was used to. The thing was almost ten feet tall! But it did the trick rather nicely, Harry thought, as the Dementors made a speedy retreat. When the stag had filled it's purpose it strutted back over to Harry giving him what looked like a smug smile. Never before in his life had Harry seen a stag smile, let alone smugly. Baffled, he waved his wand and the stag disappeared.

He stood, panting, for a while before the million-dollar question struck him. Why had there been Dementors at Privet Drive?

His thoughts were interrupted by the arrival of a ministry letter informing him that he was to attend a hearing concerning his use of underage magic.

**-ovo-**

The hearing was short and to the point. When the court expressed their scepticism at Dementors having appeared in Little Whinging, Harry willingly submitted a memory to a pensive and was cleared of all charges. The sandbox issue was not brought up and Harry assumed that the Ministry didn't know about the incident. Why they didn't know, Harry had no idea.

Mr. Weasley, who had escorted Harry to the hearing from Privet Drive, brought him too Grimmauld Place where he was reunited with his friends and Sirius. After a short temper tantrum in which Harry complained about having been kept in the dark by all of them and in the middle of which Ron and Hermione discovered that they were to be prefects, they all sat down and ate a slightly strained dinner with the members of the Order of the Phoenix.

Harry, upon finding out about the Order, immediately wanted to join. Mrs. Weasley dismissed his whish by pointing out that even if he did abandon his education, which would have been an immensely stupid thing to do, he was still under age and could therefore be tracked by the ministry.

The rest of the summer passed quickly without any more accidental bursts of magic from Harry who assumed that the sandbox incident must have been a fluke.

When Harry, Ginny, Neville and Luna all got situated it their compartment on the Hogwarts Express, Harry was the least excited he had ever been to return to the castle. The Daily Prophet was discrediting him every chance it got and Harry was not eager to face the whispers and suspicion he was sure to be met with from other students. Harry was no stranger to animosity but that didn't mean he particularly enjoyed it.

He was eventually able to put his worries aside and laughed along with the others as they talked about their summers. Harry found Luna, whom he had never met before, particularly amusing. For some reason, she reminded him of someone but Harry could not for the life of him figure out whom.

After a while Ron and Hermione joined them, both of them looking disgruntled.

"Malfoy is a prefect" Ron said, sounding exasperated, as he sat down. "How can _Malfoy _be a prefect?"

Harry groaned at the news. "He's going to be a nightmare."

Hermione shrugged. "Well at least he can't take away points."

Harry smiled at her before remembering something he had been meaning to ask her.

"Hermione, can patronuses grow bigger?"

She looked pensive for a moment. "Well first of all, I think it's called _patroni_." Ron sniggered and Hermione glared at him. "But I've never read anything about them growing. Patroni take the shape of an animal and thus also the size of that particular animal. Why?"

"Mine is huge now."

Hermione raised her eyebrows. "Can you show us?"

Harry nodded and concentrated on his happiest memories. It took him a moment to get into the proper mind-frame but when he did he cast the spell. The ten feet tall stag had to bow it's head to fit I the compartment and many found some part of themselves positioned inside the silver animal. Harry's whole head was inside the thigh of the stag and he felt like he was underwater, except for the fact that he could breath. The animal was radiating calm and joy and Ginny was so overwhelmed that it brought tears to her eyes.

"This is amazing, Harry" Neville said, breaking the silence.

"Yeah."

Hermione looked pensive.

Prongs faded but a happy silence lingered in the compartment. Eventually Ron said something funny to break the silence and the group continued to talk and laugh as they had earlier all the way to the platform were Harry, Hermione and Ron broke off from the others and settled themselves into a carriage.

-**ovo-**

"Hey Harry!" said Dean, when Harry entered the dormitory. "Good holiday?"

"Ehm, well. Not bad." Harry muttered. "You?" He moved towards his bed and started fussing with his belongings.

"It was OK, better than Seamus' anyway." Dean chuckled and started rummaging through his trunk.

"Why, what happened?" Harry asked, turning towards the boy in question. Seamus was standing with his back to Harry hanging up posters on the wall. Slowly, the boy turned to glare at Harry.

"My mum almost didn't let me come back to Hogwarts this year."

Funny how much a few words could affect the mood in a room, tension was running higher than when Peeves gets that nasty '_I'm going to prank you so hard that your socks fall off'_ look in his eye.

"Oh, why?" Harry asked, dreading the answer.

"Well, mostly because of you, and what the Daily Prophet's been writing about you and Dumbledore."

Harry sighed. "She believes that I'm a liar and that Dumbledore is a fool?"

Seamus winced a little but did not back down. "Yeah, something like that."

"Then she is the fool." Harry hated that he always had to be the one who was stared at, talked about and how he was constantly in the spotlight. He couldn't believe how some people actually envied him. If they had any idea what it was like, what it felt like to be famous for something that killed your parents. They just didn't understand. And he shouldn't have to spell it out. If Seamus' mum, or anyone else for that matter, wanted to believe he was a liar then so be it. But why anyone would believe that he would lie aboutVoldemort being back was a mystery to him.

"Don't talk about my mother like that!"

"I'll have a go at anyone who calls me a liar!"

Seamus' eyes widened and for a moment he looked a little scared. It was then that Harry realized all the beds and trunks in the room were rattling, quite violently at that. Seamus grabbed his wand and pointed it with shaking hands at Harry.

"Stop it, whatever it is that you are doing. Stop it!"

The rattling grew louder.

"What's going on in here?" Ron asked stopping in the doorway, his prefects badge clearly visible on his chest.

Seamus lowered his wand, but didn't break eye contact with Harry. The rattling stopped.

"Nothing" Harry muttered, brushing past his best mate and heading down towards the common room. "Not a thing"

Few Gryffindors were still present as Harry sat down sullenly in one of the chairs facing the fire. One of them was none other than Ginevra Weasley, who regarded Harry with calculating eyes.

"You know," she said, putting down her textbook on transfiguration and folding her arms in a businesslike manner. "You might feel better if you talk about it."

Harry looked at her for a moment. "Talk about what?"

She huffed. "I'm not stupid you know. I've read the Prophet and I know what they are saying about you." Harry opened his mouth to say something but Ginny gave him a very sharp look, so he remained silent. "I didn't say I _believe_ what they are writing." Ginny continued. "But I know some people might. You don't know what it was like during the first war and neither do I. But many parents _do_ remember. They remember living in constant fear and they remember waking up some days to learn that their neighbour had been murdered, or their best friend. None of them are keen on embracing the fact that Voldemort is back. They are in denial and so is Fudge. But you can't let it get to you Harry. Stay strong."

Harry looked into the fire, contemplating her words. Finally, he stood up and headed back to the boys dormitories, squeezing her shoulder in passing. She recognized the gesture as a thank you and smiled softly as she once again picked up her textbook.

Slowly Harry ascended the stairs. He stood outside the door to the fifth year's dorm for quite some time. Ginny was right, he couldn't go nuts every time someone doubted him. He was a teenager and adults saw him as such. It was easy for the Prophet to twist his words and they did so with a flourish. He couldn't blame Seamus' mum for not wanting to believe Voldemort was back. It was his word against the Ministry's and Seamus' mum didn't even know him. With a sigh, he entered the room and walked over to Seamus who was sitting on his bed. The Gryffindor narrowed his eyes at Harry but relaxed as he saw the apology clearly visibly on Harry's face.

"Look mate, I'm sorry I flew off my handle like that. But I really am telling the truth and it isn't my fault if your mum doesn't believe me. What happened that night with Cedric- I" Harry tugged on his hair in frustration. "I really don't want to talk about it. But Voldemort needed my blood to come back, and he took it. He tried to kill me, but I got away. Barely. I really thought I was going to die that night. The only reason that I'm still alive is because he needed me. And he used the Cruci- well, anyway. He's back."

Seamus looked stricken, and Harry noticed that both Dean and Neville were looking at him intently.

"Voldemort _is_ back. And if we pretend he's not, we'll all die."

With that Harry flopped down on his bed and pulled the hangings around him, but not before noticing Ron's less then subtle thumbs up. Smiling in spite of himself, it didn't take long before Harry was asleep, dreaming of long dark corridors and mysterious doors.

The following morning, Harry woke up to the sound of Ron bustling about in the room quite noisily. Irritated, he threw a pillow at the red head but missed by quite a bit. This did not go unnoticed.

"Hey! Whatchu playing at?" Ron demanded throwing the pillow back at Harry who neatly caught it and tossed it back onto his bead.

"Well, I was sleeping you prat. Why d'you have to make so much noise? Haven't you ever heard of being stealthy?"

Ron was just about to answer when a pillow hit him square in the face. "Mmhfh!"

"Shut. Up." Neville croaked having thrown the pillow with amazing accuracy considering the fact that he was still half asleep. A second later Neville squeaked, as a pillow hit him too. Dean smiled, looking quite pleased at having caused Neville to make suck an embarrassing noise. When the boy in question glared at him he just shrugged. "You woke me up"

"Will you all just sod off," Seamus muttered angrily.

There was a beat of silence before the poor tired Gryffindor was pelted by pillows.

**-ovo-**

A month passed uneventfully for the inhabitants of Hogwarts if one didn't take into account the lurid pink monstrosity named Dolores Umbridge.

"That woman is a foul toad." Hermione spat after a particularly aggravating DADA lesson. "I don't how we are supposed to learn _anything _with _her_ as our teacher." Ron nodded gravely. Harry had no idea how Professor McGonagall expected him to keep his temper under control during Umbridge's lesson, it was like asking him to befriend Snape, or snog Malfoy. Impossible and vile to even consider.

"I'm going to fail my Defence OWL" Hermione whimpered and Ron gave her an exasperated look.

Harry clutched his hand. The skin was red and irritated after last night's detention.

"Don't worry Hermione. We can just practise defensive spells on the side. What Umbridge doesn't know won't hurt her." Dean said as he and Seamus joined them by the fire in the common room.

"That's brilliant Dean! D'you hear that Hermione? You can just learn the stuff on your own. We all can!" Ron said as he patted her on the back.

"But who is going to teach us how to perform the spells correctly?"

"I don't know, some teacher. Professor McGonagall probably could, if we asked her nicely." Seamus offered.

"No, I reckon Umbridge would be furious if she found out. She would find a way to sack McGonagall. I don't think we can ask a teacher. At least not one that we wouldn't want sacked. And Snape would just say no if we asked him." Harry said. This comment earned an amused smile from Ron.

After a moments pause, Hermione's eyes gleamed and Harry frowned at her. He knew that look. It was the look Hermione got when she had figured something out.

"A student then" she said. "Someone with real experience fighting against the Dark Arts. Someone who's been there, who knows how it feels."

Harry spluttered as Seamus, Dean, Ron and Hermione all turned to look at him.

"Me? But I can't teach you anything. Hermione, you know more spells then I do, and I'm not nearly good enough to teach anybody anything."

Hermione raised her eyebrow. "Harry, you can cast a corporal patronus, you won the TriWizard tournament and you fought a basilisk in your second year. Everyone knows you are the best at Defence against the Dark Arts. You can do this."

Seamus and Dean looked flabbergasted. "Blimey Harry, was that part about the basilisk true?" Dean spluttered. "I thought that was only a rumour!"

Harry sighed.

Eventually the others wore him down and Harry agreed to teach them what he knew, although he only agreed to start doing so _after_ attempting to tackle the vast amounts of homework placed upon the fifth-years. The lessons this year were gruesome thanks to those bothersome OWL's. Harry still did not know how to properly vanish a snail.

During a relatively calm week towards the end of October, the DA was formed and a contract was signed. The Room of Requirement was discovered shortly thereafter and at the beginning of their third DA meeting there, Harry looked around at the members happily.

"Today, we are going to practise shield charms." he announced, earning and excited murmur from everybody in the room.

"I'm now going to show you all how it's done." Harry felt a little awkward when it came to telling people what to do and it always surprised him how vigilantly the DA members always listened to him. "Hermione, try to disarm me and I'll try and block you."

Hermione smiled and walked up in front of the rest, facing Harry. After a beat of silence, she raised her wand.

"Expelliarmus!"

"Protego!"

Hermione's spell bounced harmlessly off the shield and she ducked as it rebounded back to her.

"Now you try," Harry said, motioning for the members to pair up.

He watched them all, a sense of pride and happiness filling him. It felt so good to be_ doing_ something. He saw Luna block spells from two people at once while singing rather loudly. Ginny, being one of the people who cast a spell against her laughed and stepped aside as the spell rebounded.

Harry smirked as he watched his friends duel, thinking for the first time that they all actually might stand a chance if forced to fight. While still filled with this warm fuzzy feeling he pointed his wand at an oncoming stray spell and yelled,

"PROTEGO!"

A blinding white light shot out of his wand and the most powerful shield Harry had ever produced blasted out in front of him, knocking everyone standing to close to the ground. Ron, who had been standing the closest to Harry, got smacked so hard in the back by the shield that he flew forwards, landing in a heap a few broom lengths away.

The room grew very silent as they all stared at Harry.

"Bloody hell, mate" Ron groaned.

**-ovo-**

"Harry!"

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Harry!"

"No!"

"But Harry, that was brilliant!"

"I- I can't produce a shield that strong. It was a fluke."

"A fluke? A FLUKE? It was BRILLIANT." Ron spluttered.

"You should go see Dumbledore." Hermione interjected.

Harry glared at her. "It was just a fluke, just like the exploding sandbox." Harry said determinedly.

"I wash I could experience flukes..." Ron said with a dreamy expression on his face. Then his eyes widened with sudden comprehension. "Hey, wait a minute! Exploding sandbox? You made a sandbox EXPLODE?"

Harry uttered a low curse for letting that particular piece of information slip and then he waved his hand vaguely. "It was an accident. I got angry, that's all."

"Harry, these seem like very powerful bursts of magic. I really think you should go talk to Professor Dumbledore or Professor McGonagall" Hermione persisted.

"No."

She sighed.

They all flopped down into their regular chairs by the fire in the common room. Ron was making excited exploding noises, and waving his hands about frantically having completely ignored the Dumbledore part of the conversation and instead focused on the fact that his best mate had made something explode.

The next day, Charms class was particularly boring as Harry, Ron and Hermione practised the Hover charm on a stack of pillows.

Ron's pillow was flailing and flopping on the desk in front of him as he stared at it with a frustrated expression.

Hermione's pillows were zooming into the allotted boxes in the corners of the classroom.

Harry was absentmindedly playing with his by making it circle menacingly above Ron's head when he heard whispers from behind him.

"_..says you-know-who's back. Gone bonkers if you ask me."_

"_What really happened in that graveyard? How did Cedric really die? What if…"_

"_My mum might not let me come back next year, all because of…"_

Harry was abruptly very angry. Why did no one believe him? He grimly flicked his wand (not noticing that it was emitting golden sparks) without really thinking about what he was doing and suddenly _all_ the pillows zoomed into the air, raining down on peoples heads at random before zooming up into the air again, causing chaos in the classroom. Many pillows ripped and feathers were suddenly everywhere_._

Professor Flitwick was flailing about and shouting at random, trying to make himself heard over the confused yells of the students.

People started yelling _Accio _at the pillows, trying to gather them all in one place. But someone's summoning spell missed and hit Professor Flitwick instead, sending him flying through the cloud of feathers screaming like a banshee.

Ron was laughing with tears streaming down his face but Hermione did not look amused. She turned to Harry and glared.

"Dumbledore" she snapped.

"_No_"

**-ovo-**

On a cold Wednesday in November, the first class of the day for fifth year Gryffindors was _Potions. _After a long tirade about inadequacy and OWLs with a few sneers thrown in, just for the fun of it, Snape had them all start with The Draught of Peace.

The Potions professor prowled amongst the students looking for excuses to punish or reprimand. It was after all, what did man enjoyed most. When he had sated his need for taunting his students he moved on to his favourite past time: making Harry miserable.

Harry Potter was not considered by many to be an unusually cheery bloke, most thought him a bit moody. Today, however, he was elated. The DA was coming along splendidly and for once his potion looked pretty good, better than Ron's at least. Unfortunately, Snape did not let this stop him from taunting Harry.  
With a malicious sneer, he _accidently_ knocked Harry's cauldron over in passing.

"Woops" The slimy bat said, sounding like he enjoyed the whole thing far too much. Harry watched as his potion leaked onto the floor before being banished by Snape. Anger flashed through him and he ground his teeth together.

"Your maturity never ceases to amaze me,_ sir_."

At this, Snape looked slightly taken aback. Then he seemed to recover and gave Harry a vicious glare.

"Ah, I see your ego ha-" But Professor Snape did not get a chance to finish his sentence before a disturbing creaking sound echoed in the room. It was the sound of metal put under considerable strain.

The creaking continued up until Snape broke his eye contact with Harry, looking slightly nervous. As soon as the Professor looked away, the noise ceased. The rest of the class had all by this point completely abandoned their brews and were watching the scene with interest.

The Gryffindors looked a little uneasy, but most of them trusted Harry, regardless of what the Prophet was saying about him. The Slytherins however, looked downright scared. And yet whatever their reaction, _everyone_ was convinced that Harry was the cause of the sound. It was one of those things that you just _know_.

"Detention Potter. Saturday at eight." Harry couldn't help but notice that Snape's sneer had lost it's conviction and that it seemed to look a little forced. While the magical outburst had been completely accidental, he couldn't deny that the effects it was having on his professor were rather enjoyable. However, detention for something he had not done on purpose nor had it caused anyone any harm, seemed slightly unfair.

"But I didn't d-"

"DETENTION"

The metal creaking started up again, even more alarming this time. Every student in the room was staring wide-eyed at Harry Potter, who in turn was glaring fiercely at Professor Snape. Then suddenly, with a loud crash, the door to the Potions classroom fell to the floor and Harry walked calmly out of the classroom and towards Dumbledore's office, leaving behind him a silent classroom.

There was a beat of silence before a fellow Slytherin turned around in his seat to look at Draco Malfoy.

"Look, I know you don't like him. But you have to admit, the bloke's got style"

Draco simple sneered half-heartedly as he eyed the warped and battered door that lay on the ground wearily.


	3. Chapter 3

Disclaimer: (insert funny joke about how I don't own zip.)

**Professor Sprout had spiked all the pumpkin juice**

**-ovo-**

The gargoyle in front of Dumbledore's office was used to seeing people come and go. He prided himself in being very particular about whom he let enter, security was, after all, his job. This, however, did not prevent him from studying Hogwarts students meticulously.

He remembered the first time he saw who would come to be called Voldemort. Tom Riddle had been a scrawny yet handsome boy, and the gargoyle had watched him charm his way into getting what he wanted with slight apprehension. That boy had certainly been a true Slytherin.

Then along came another boy, a famous boy. A boy who reminded him of Riddle quite a lot, despite the fact that he was a Gryffindor. And yet, beyond the obvious resemblances, the two were quite different. If a gargoyle could have a favourite person, then that person would undoubtedly be Harry James Potter. The boy had a knack for getting into trouble, but he was also unfailingly honest and true. Fame did not inflate his ego, and it was obvious how selfless he was. Harry Potter was a _good_ person. A trait that, unfortunately, was very rare.

Harry was an excellent person who just happened to be a trouble magnet. And today, the gargoyle mused as he watched Harry approaching looking very uneasy, did not seem to be an exception.

"Lemon, ehm- well, Lemon something."

The gargoyle remained still and unmoving.

"Chocolate Frogs." "Berty Botts Every Flavoured Beans" "Treacle Tart" "Pheonix" "Oh, come _on_!"

Harry huffed and glared at the gargoyle.

"Look, if you don't open up I'll dress you in a tutu and get Hermione to place a permanent sticking charm on it."

The gargoyle smoothly stepped aside. Yes, Harry Potter was indeed his favourite.

**-ovo-**

Albus Dumbledore was confused. He didn't like being wrong.

Harry James Potter was pacing in front of his desk having just confessed to being more powerful than anyone else in his year. These were not, of course, the words he himself had used. But Dumbledore had taken the liberty of making this very likely conclusion.

Ever since Harry's arrival at Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore had been observing the boy closely. He had noted his bravery, courage, loyalty and the boy's pure and good heart.  
Albus was thus convinced that the prophecy referred to the boy's ability to love when it spoke of _power the Dark Lord has not_.

And yet, as he watched the teenager pace in front of him, talking of pillows going crazy, exploding sandboxes and creaking doors; Albus was forced to realize that Harry Potter had much more potential than he had given him credit for. Albus tried to calm the boy, vaguely insinuating that the accidental magic was just a sign of his powers growing.

When Harry had left, the Headmaster popped a lemon drop in his mouth and propped his feet up on the desk, wiggling his sock-covered toes. Greater forces always seemed to be at work when it came to Harry Potter. It was ridiculously interesting to observe.

**-ovo-**

"So, what did Dumbledore say?" Ron asked when Harry plopped down at the Gryffindor table for lunch.

"Well, I dunno really. He kept speaking in riddles looking far to pleased with himself whenever I asked what he meant by it all." Harry gave Hermione a pointed look at this. "Basically he was no help at all. Just kept saying things like 'Interesting.' 'Fascinating' or 'You don't say!' and he refused to make any kind of eye contact…"

Hermione started ranting about "_better safe than sorry_". But nobody paid her much attention.

Harry's eyes drifted over to the far side of the table where he saw Ginny and Colin laughing at a joke or a funny comment. Farther off at the Ravenclaw table he spotted Cho. She looked miserable. Harry's stomach lurched. He worried that she might eventually want to talk to him about Cedric. He had been ignoring the pretty Ravenclaw all year. He didn't think he could deal with a heart to heart conversation any time soon.

Harry looked back at Ron who was shovelling food down his throat at a disgusting pace.

"_Honestly_ Ron, that's gross." Hermione commented before swiftly standing up and walking off. Harry tried not to laugh and picked absentmindedly at his food with his fork. Ron frowned at her retreating back before laying his fork down and standing up.

"Come on then, lets head off to Quidditch practise" Ron suggested.

"Yeah…"

To be honest, Harry had forgotten all about Quidditch practise.

**-ovo-**

Harry was walking back from Quidditch practise, alone, (Ron had headed up earlier due to his absolute panic when realizing that he still had a potions essay to write) through a deserted part of the castle when someone suddenly tackled him from behind. Harry was about to let out a surprised yell, but was hindered by the hand that clamped down over his mouth.

"Shut up! We are in deep shit here."

Harry felt himself being pushed into an empty classroom before he was tightly bound to a chair by ropes that seemed to appear from thin air.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to appear quite this dramatically this year but I haven't been able to find you alone once! You have been watched constantly by the Order and at school you are always surrounded by friends."

The person talking was standing behind him, preventing him from seeing their face but the voice was very familiar.

"Luna?"

Harry heard her giggle. "Yes, but not the Luna you know…"

With this said, Luna Lovegood stepped into Harry's line of sight. And it _was_ Luna, only several years older.

"I just came from talking to Dumbledore. I convinced him to tell you the prophecy. He didn't want to, but the old man was so overwhelmed from meeting someone form the future that he didn't have the energy to fight me on this." Luna smirked.

Harry just blinked.

Suddenly Luna's eyes widened as she heard footsteps outside the classroom.

"Shit! Harry, quickly. Tell me which one of your friends is most likely to believe something ridiculous but true, apart from the other Luna."

"I d-don't know. Why not, er, t-the other Luna?" Harry stammered, confused like he had never been before.

"Because this Luna must not see me. Surely you remember that from your third year when you used Hermione's Time Turner. But never mind that Harry, this is important!"

The footsteps grew nearer.

"You've travelled back in time!"

"Yes, now answer the question. Quick!"

Harry rubbed his head and started thinking out loud. "Oh, well, not Hermione, she's too logical about everything. So if this ridiculous thing that you're planning on telling someone isn't logical than she probably won't buy it. Ron would just think Fred and George had thought up a new prank, Ginny would too. But then again, Ginny is less stubborn than Ron."

"Right, so Ginny then. Harry do you trust her?"

"Sure."

"With your life?"

Harry blinked. The footsteps had reached the classroom door and he heard someone grab the handle.

"Yes, I trust all the Weasleys with my life."

"Good."

The door swung open just as the ropes around Harry disappeared. Luna Lovegood, the younger version, stepped through the door and eyed Harry curiously.

"Was I just here?" Luna looked confused as she asked.

"Er, no…?" Harry was casting nervous glances at the older Luna who was standing in the corner slightly behind the door that younger Luna had come through. The older Luna stepped forward and put her hand on the younger Luna's shoulder. With a flash of blue light, the two Luna's merged and the older Luna's body disintegrated into a slivery mist that was absorbed into the younger Luna's left ear. Harry just stared.

Luna shook her head as if to clear it and then she smiled benignly, looking loonier than ever. "Come" she said, taking Harry's hand and dragging him out of the classroom as he stumbled along behind her.

**-ovo-**

Firenze gazed at the sky. Centaurs were impartial. But the creature couldn't help but smile as he looked up. "Saturn is aligned with Mars, a sign of power." He whispered. "Good luck, Harry Potter."

**-ovo-**

"I thought you couldn't meet your other self?" Harry muttered when he had recovered from the massive shock of seeing someone's body enter someone else's through an ear.

"I thought so too. But it worked out alright I suppose."

"And what about Ginny?"

Luna stopped walking and blinked at him. "What about her?"

Harry huffed in frustration. "You wanted to know if I trusted her with my life." He suspected Luna might just be messing with him.

Luna glanced over his shoulder before smiling broadly. "And do you trust Ginny with your life?"

"Yes! I do. I just told you a few moments ago!"

Luna turned and started walking away much to Harry's utter confusion. "Go to Dumbledore soon. Tonight. Then come to me, when you want answers." She said before walking around a corner and disappearing.

"You trust me with your life?" Harry heard someone ask from behind him. He turned and spotted Ginny who was smiling. Harry walked towards her.

"Ginny! Quick! Say something normal. I think I'm loosing my mind."

She raised her eyebrow. "Is Luna messing with you?"

"Depends on which Luna you are referring to. I've seen two tonight."

Ginny laughed incredulously. "Well this sounds interesting. Tell me Potter, how can there be two of the same person?"

Harry snorted and started telling Ginny about his third year at Hogwarts and Hermione's time-turner. This led to further questions about Sirius, which lead to stories of the Marauders. The talked for hours, walking aimlessly around the school grounds before Harry once again remembered Luna and her cryptic comment about Dumbledore. Harry said goodbye to Ginny and hurried off towards the Headmaster's office.

**-ovo-**

_The one with power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal. But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives._

It was echoing in his head, like a broken record, a really disturbing, depressing and rather morbid record.

"What power do I have that Voldemort does not?" Harry spoke softly.

Dumbledore hesitated, but since he could not be certain of any other power he answered what he had originally thought to be true.

"Well, for one thing. You have the ability to love."

Harry squirmed. His mind was still rather soggy after hearing that he must kill and after all that business with Luna earlier, and so his response sounded dumber than the gurgling noise Ron had made the first time he spotted a Veela. "Love? You want me to defeat Voldemort by loving him to death? That's a little disturbing Professor…" Dumbledore looked as if he had been hit by a confundus charm.

An awkward silence fell over the room.

Harry rubbed his head as he laughed nervously, trying to make his brain function better.

"Well, ehm. Goodness, look at the time. You should head back to your dorm, Harry. We will continue this conversation at another time."

**-ovo-**

Meanwhile, back in the common room, the Gryffindors where all listening with rapt attention as one of the portraits was telling them all the juicy gossip. Although, since the news had travelled down the grape-wine it was a little disjointed and confusing.

"So then the misty woman told them about this _prophecy_. And_ apparently_ Harry Potter has been chosen to kill Voldemort since he was _born_." The portrait made a dramatic pause that was perfected by the scandalized looks on those listening.  
"And _then_ Dumbledore said that it would just have easily been Neville Longbottom who became the chosen one. I think that _maybe_ Voldemort was lazy and just tried to kill the most _convenient_ boy who was born as the seventh month died."

At this, Neville fainted.

"But then it got weird because that Potter bloke said something about falling in love with the Dark Lord."

It was like when something really terrible has been said and everyone gets really angry or sad except for one or two people who are so stunned that they laugh even though it isn't really funny. Then the laughter starts getting contagious so everyone else starts laughing as well. And then someone says something that actually is rather amusing and suddenly tears are streaming down peoples faces, as they lay doubled over laughing.

Because that sort of thing happens all the time…

As the Gryffindor's lay draped over various pieces of furniture, and as their laughter had started to abate, the common room door opened and the Chosen One stepped in.

This caused more laughter.

Ron wobbled over to Harry and clapped him on the shoulder. "Really mate, in love with You-Know-Who? Isn't that taking it all a little to far?"

Harry wondered how Ron could possibly know what he and Dumbledore had been talking about but then his gaze fell on the blushing portrait.

He sighed.

"Listen up everyone!" he shouted.

The laughter died down and everyone turned to watch Harry with amused expressions. Harry frowned, his anger flaring. He couldn't see what was so funny.

"Think this is funny do you?" He took a deep breath and then he spoke with an eerily calm voice._"The one with power to vanquish the Dark Lord approaches, born to those who have thrice defied him, born as the seventh month dies. And the Dark Lord will mark him as his equal. But he will have power the Dark Lord knows not. And either must die at the hand of the other for neither can live while the other survives."_

A clap of thunder could be heard from outside as the Gryffindors all stood in stunned silence.

"So, either I die, or Voldemort dies. Still think it's funny?"

No one was smiling. Neville, who had been awaken by Lavender, looked like he was about to have a heart attack. Harry caught Ginny's eye as she and Hermione came down the stairs. They had not participated in the merriment earlier as they had both felt that it was rather rude to spy. Hermione had tears in her eyes and scurried over to Ron, who wrapped his arm around her. Ginny just looked mad. Not at any particular person, just plain mad.

"I know you can defeat him, Harry," she said. "Just looked at all you've done already. You defeated him in your first year. Killed his memory in your second and evaded him yet again in your fourth year. You saved me from a basilisk, fought a mountain troll, got chased by a dragon and defeated hundreds of Dementors all at once. You speak parsletounge andyou are the best in our school at Defence against the Dark Arts. I believe in you Harry."

Harry blushed as the rest of the Gryffindors cheered at Ginny's speech. All except for Hermione who thought it had sounded really cheesy, like some motivational speech from a movie, but she was to busy being side-hugged by Ron to say so.

"I had help…" Harry said feebly but no one listened.

Harry stood up a bit straighter as the Gryffindors continued to cheer. Or at least, he stood up straighter for a little while, before realising how stupid he had been for telling everyone the prophecy. It was, after all, supposed to be a _secret_ prophecy.

"Oh bugger"

Harry grew really anxious. But then, as if bloody Fate itself had taken pity on him, it turned out that Professor Sprout had spiked all the pumpkin juice with a Memory confounding potion strong enough for everyone to forget all that been said from the about the time were the portrait had started telling them about prophecy up until Ginny's speech. As it turns out, luck cannot not always evade The-Boy-Who-Lived.

_Why_ Professor Sprout had done this remains a mystery. But we are talking about Hogwarts here; nothing ever seems to make much sense in that castle.


	4. Chapter 4

**(A/N) **Hey, so I'm loving all the story alerts. Frankly, I wasn't really sure anyone would like this since I wrote it only for my own amusement and therefor I worried that it wouldn't be "reader-friendly". But.. I.. guess it is..?

**Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore did a jig.**

**-ovo-**

After arguing with himself for a few days, Harry chose to reveal the prophecy again to Ron, Hermione and Ginny, whom he apparently trusted with his life, so why not trust her with this as well.

"So, erm-" Ron scratched the back of his head. "How are you holding up?"

He, Hermione and Harry were all sitting by the fire in the common room. It was late, and most people had gone to bed. Harry looked at Ron for a moment with a blank expression on his face.

"Well, I can't_ not_ try to kill Voldemort." He said after a while. Ron flinched, causing Hermione to scowl at him. Harry ignored them both and continued. "And sometimes, sometimes I feel like I could actually do it. Like I could face him and fight him." Harry was surprised. The words had flown out of him without his permission. But they felt_ true_. Hermione bit her lip and glanced at Ron again. At ruffly the same time Colin Creevy glanced at Ginny who was glaring at Lavender who was laughing at a second year with _really_ ugly glasses. "He- He's ruined so many families and killed so many people." Harry looked into the fire and missed the look that passed between Ron and Hermione. But considering how many looks had been flying around since the beginning of his very short speech, this was not surprising. "'_Kill the spare' _That's what he said before Wormtail killed Cedric." Harry's voice faltered. "I want him dead. And I have to be the one to do it."

Hermione looked amazed, but not surprised.

"I've never told you this Harry." she said. "Partly because I knew you didn't want to hear it. But I think you should" she straightened her shoulders and looked him dead in the eye. "You are a natural born leader and a far better person than people give you credit for. I'm very glad to know you, Harry Potter, let alone call you friend."

This made Harry very embarrassed. But he forced away the heat from his cheeks and returned her gaze steadily.

"Thank you."

Ron, being the baby that he is, felt left out and harshly tugged on Hermione's hair to get her attention. She snapped at him and that was all it took for a full-blown argument to brake out. Harry rolled his eyes, but was secretly very glad that the spotlight was off him.

Later that day he was walking down an empty corridor on his way down to the lake to meet Luna. He needed answers and had recovered enough from the weirdness of it all that he felt he was ready to talk.

"Harry!"

Harry turned around, surprised to see Ginny chasing after him. She nearly crashed into him when she reached him and Harry grabbed her elbow to steady her. "Thanks" she beamed.

"Dumbledore wanted me to give this to you," she said handing over a sealed scroll. Another smile, and then she was gone. Harry watched her go, before shaking his head and looking back at the scroll.

_Meet me in my office.  
We have pressing matters to discuss._

_Fizzing Whizbee_

Dumbledore was sitting with his back to Harry when he entered the headmaster's office, there was a moment of awkward silence before the headmaster swivelled his chair around dramatically.

"Hello Harry, please take a seat."

Harry sat, fidgeting as he did so.

"Harry, I know you must be feeling concerned about the prophecy."

"Actually, sir, I've been trying not to think about it too much. I mean, want to be able to face Voldemort and live, but I'm _fifteen_. I'm barely mature enough to not spill food on my shirt when I eat, let alone mature enough to handle _this_."

Dumbledore sighed. "This is a great responsibility. But there is a way. As of now, Voldemort is immortal." _Well that makes me feel better_, Harry thought exasperatedly. "I believe he has created something called Horcruxes." Dumbledore continued. "This I learned from a memory collected from a former colleague of mine, Horace Slughorn. Would you like to see it?"

Harry nodded even though it was clear that this was more of a command than a request.

Harry watched Dumbledore bring forth the pensive, and after diving into it he watched Tom Riddle calmly discuss splitting his soul into seven pieces. When the memory had ended, a new one flickered into place automatically. The interview with Voldemort regarding a job offer at the school; the Gaunt family ring and Tom's mother; Tom as a boy finding out that he was a wizard and finally; Hokey, the house elf showing Tom the cup.

"_Seven_?"

Dumbledore looked grave. "Yes Harry, _seven._"

"Lovely" Harry said, his voice sounding squeaky with panic.

Dumbledore coughed.

"The ring, is the ring a Horcrux?"

"I think so, yes."

"And it could be any object? No matter how common?"

"Yes."

"The cup..?"

"Yes."

"Helga Hufflepuff's cup…" Harry stood up and started pacing. "He was an orphan like me. I remember him talking about how alike we were when I was in the chamber. He loved Hogwarts. It was his only home. He was the heir of Slytherin… The chamber… The diary?"

"Yes Harry, the diary was a Horcrux." Dumbledore looked surprised.

"The ring, the cup, the diary. Four more. Four. There were four founders of Hogwarts. If we wanted the cup he would have wanted something from the other three as well, wouldn't he? To complete the set? What a sick bastard… The chamber…" Dumbledore sat silently, watching the boy who seemed to have forgotten he had an audience. "The chamber… the chamber… Salazar Slytherin… Professor! You don't think… the basilisk?"

"No Harry. I don't think the basilisk was a Horcrux."

Harry looked a little disappointed.

"So, if he had something from Helga Hufflepuff, then that leaves Ravenclaw, Gryffindor and Slytherin. The sword?"

"No, not the sword."

Harry huffed. "Well, anyway… the cup, the ring and the diary. If he did want something from all houses, and if he did make a Horcrux out of something from Gryffindor, Ravenclaw and Slytherin as well then that leaves one more thing, doesn't it?"

"Yes Harry. But we cannot be sure of these things. And it is not the primary reason I asked you to come here tonight."

"Oh"

"I want to discuss your safety."

"Oh"

Dumbledore twirled his wand, his blue eyes twinkling behind half moon spectacles. "I would like for you to attend extra lessons."

"Okay. What am I going to be studying during these lessons? Sir."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled even more than before. "Oh, I was thinking that you might be interested in becoming an animagus."

Harry's eyes widened. "Why?"

There was more eye twinkling. "I think you'll find it can be very convenient to have the ability to walk around undetected. It took your father and his friends years to develop his animagus form, but due to some, er, recent developments, I think it might take you less time."

"What sort of developments?" Harry asked suspiciously.

"You'll find out soon enough. Have a pleasant evening."

Harry forgot all about meeting Luna as he walked back to the common room, contemplating becoming an animagus.

**-ovo-**

"That's BRILLIANT mate" Ron scuffed Harry on the shoulder.

"Yeah, I thought so too" Harry smiled uncertainly as he collapsed into a chair in the common room. Ron started wondering out load which animal Harry was going to turn into. His top three most likely were: a phoenix, a basilisk or a fly. This led to a heated debate between Ron and Hermione about the usefulness of being a fly, a debate that soon turned into a full-blown row.

Ginny ignored them, instead she watched Harry closely. "You say you thought, not you think," she observed tapping her chin with her wand thoughtfully. Harry frowned at her, he didn't like feeling like an open book.

"_Of course he wouldn't be a fly Rod, I mean honestly. A fly? How stupid."_

"Well, I thought it was pretty brilliant at first. But then... I mean, they're only teaching me these kinds of things because I'm Harry Potter."

"_STUPID? I'm not stupid. Just because you are a know-it-all doesn't mean that-"_

"And no matter how much Snape claims that I secretly love the attention- Greasy git, I can't for the life of me understand why anyone would make HIM a teacher. I mean,"

Ginny poked him in the arm.

"Oh, right. Where was I? Oh, well I- er, don't like the attention. I don't want to be seen as a hero when I'm just… me. You know?" Harry squirmed awkwardly when he noted how mushy this conversation was getting.

Ginny smiled at him. "Yes, you will be seen as just a hero. But not by the people who count. The ones who love you don't care about you because of your fame; they love you regardless of it."

"_RONALD! How can you say something like that! Just because you have the emotional range of a teaspoon-"_

"Dumbledore can't change the prophecy so he's making damned sure it turns out in your favour. And, well, would you hand this burden over to anyone else? Would you walk away from it? I know you Harry; you're to noble for your own good. You are doing this for the people you love. You have a purpose. Don't forget that."

"_WHY DO YOU ALWAYS HAVE TO HAVE A GO AT ME? CAN'T YOU JUST LEAVE ME ALONE?"_

Harry stared at her. "How do you _do_ that?"

"_FINE! MAYBE I WILL!"_

Ginny shifted in her seat, his stare made her embarrassed. "Do what?"

"Make me feel better." Ginny just smiled. The sound of a door slamming broke their little bubble and they both looked up, startled. Ron was sitting in a chair, his face was flaming red and he was out of breath. "Can." _wheeze_ "You." _wheeze_ "_Believe_ her?"

**-ovo-**

A week passed, filled with heavy loads of homework and successful DA meetings. Umbridge was getting nastier by the minute and Malfoy, now a proud member of the inquisitorial squad, was taking points from houses with glee. After a particularly stressful Potions class, Harry walked out to find Ginny waiting for him. Smiling, he rushed up to her.

"What's up?"

"Dumbledore wanted me to give this to you" Ginny handed him a scroll of parchment.

"Oh" The walked next to each other, rather awkwardly.

"So how is Quidditch going?" He asked. It was a stupid question and he flushed a little.

"Well…" They stopped by a window facing the Quidditch pitch "I'm okay. But not as good as you." She watched him stare at Ravenclaw's practicing team with a wistful expression.

"You really miss it don't you?"

He snorted. She scratched her nose, something she always did when thinking.

"Meet me here tonight at eight. Don't forget Dumbledore." she lightly pushed him away from the window and towards the headmaster's office before taking off in the other direction.

**-ovo-**

Harry wore a faraway expression as he entered Dumbledore's office and the headmaster watched him, amused. It took a few moments for Harry to realize that he had reached his destination and when he did he quickly focused on Dumbledore.

"Hello Harry," the headmaster said, indicating to a chair. "Please have a seat."

Harry sat.

"I would like it if you could tell me more about the accidental magic you have done this term." Dumbledore clasped his hands together and watched Harry intently.

"Er, 's been happening when I feel very strongly about something. Happy, angry… or, er, very sad…" The last sentence hung in the air between them as Harry looked down at his knees, thinking of Cedric.

"So, basically when you were feeling emotional" Dumbledore spoke very softly.

"Yes, I guess so, sir."

"And do you feel more powerful?"

"Yes."

"Does that make you happy?"

Harry furrowed his brow. "Quirrel said that there was no good and evil, only power. He was wrong. Power does not make me happy; it's what I do with the power that I care about. I want enough power to fulfil the prophecy. No more." He felt like a naïve child for thinking that he could stop Voldemort who knew a great deal more magic than him, but Voldemort had to be stopped and he had to be the one to do it. And Harry did not want to die, not when he had so much to live for, so there was no other option really. He was going to squash Tom Riddle. Bye bye.

Fate was a rather dodgy tosser, Dumbledore mused, warranting the fact that it caused fifteen-year olds with weird scars to plan murder. "You are far more wise than I was at your age Harry. Now, would you please cast your patronus for me?"

Harry smiled nervously at the praise and raised his wand. He summoned forth all his happy memories. He thought of Hermione and Ron. And he thought of Ginny, of her fiery hair, how she knew how to cheer him up and the look she got in her eyes when she talked about something she truly cared about. With happy butterflies fluttering around in his abdomen (or rather, with rampaging Crumple-Horned Snorcracks mucking around with his organs) he cast the spell.

The stag seemed almost solid this time and it had the same silvery gold colour that he had seen in McGonagall's office. The air around the patronus seemed to pulse and joy radiated out of it. A first year that was crying out in the hallway stopped and two sixth years having a row a little further off smiled and made up. Dumbledore watched the stag with an awed expression. "This is truly magnificent Harry," he whispered.

Harry was patting its head with a lazy smile. "Yeah, it's pretty neat."

The stag bowed and turned to walk away, disappearing in a wisp of silver mist. Dumbledore watched it go, smiling, before looking back at Harry.

"I have heard Professor Umbridge express suspicion about you having organized a defence club?"

Harry frowned. "She doesn't teach us _anything. _And we have to able to defend ourselves against what's out there. I told people that they could join even if they don't believe me about how Cedric died. They're all getting very good." He wore a proud smile as he stopped talking.

"Be cautious Harry, there are many who have noticed the similarities between you and Tom Riddle. If they learn that you have followers in school, just like he did, I'm afraid they might not take it lightly."

Harry bristled at this. "They are not my followers! I have not branded them like cattle."

Dumbledore smiled. "I do not doubt you Harry. However, I must ask you to take that opportunity to learn as many new spells as possible. Healing spells as well."

Harry looked resigned. "There is going to be a war, isn't there?"

Dumbledore looked grave, but did not answer.

"I don't want people to die. I don't want more families to suffer. I want to stop it. I want to kill him. Does that make me bad?"

"No."

Harry nodded, lost in thought.

"If we destroy the Horcruxes, can the war be avoided?" Harry asked after a while.

"Voldemort is gathering an army as we speak, and his job is being made far more easy by the ignorance displayed by the ministry. If we move quickly the war might be avoided, yes. But Harry, the life of every wizard and witch does not lie on your shoulders. Don't carry that burden unnecessarily. You mustn't blame yourself for what Voldemort does or doesn't do. I'm afraid he might take advantage of your nobility."

"Seven Horcruxes?"

Dumbledore gazed sadly at the scar on Harry's head, looking very old and tired. "Yes Harry. But it is getting late."

Harry nodded and stood up, hearing the dismissal in Dumbledore's voice. As he turned, Dumbledore spoke.

"One more thing Harry, do you mind letting me see your memories of the accidental magic in the pensive?"

"Sure"

-ovo-

Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore did a jig around his office as the other headmasters clapped along from inside their portraits.

"Did you _see _his patronus?" one of them asked another.

"We are going to win! We are going to win! We are going to win," the current headmaster chanted as he continued to dance around happily.

"Did you hear how quickly he figured out the horcruxes?"

"The boy makes sandboxes _explode _when he is feeling angry!"

"We are going to win! We are going to win! We are going to win!"

**-ovo-**

Harry stood by the window at eight o'clock. Waiting.

At five past eight he saw a redhead sprinting frantically towards him. Alarmed, Harry raised his wand.

"_Aresto Momentum_!" he shouted before shielding his head with his arms, awaiting impact. When nothing happened he peeked between his fingers. Ginny was frozen mid step, glaring at him fiercely. "Woops" Harry muttered.

"_Finite_"

Ginny unfroze and walked slowly towards him. "What the bloody hell was that for?"

Harry blinked. "Er, you were going to crash into me, I panicked…" he blushed. "It was just supposed to slow you down; I didn't think it was going to stop you completely. I must've put more force behind it than I thought…"

Ginny snorted. "Until you figure out how to control how much power you are using in your spells, please refrain from pointing your wand at me." Harry nodded.

"So, why did you want to meet me here?" Harry asked, scratching the back of his neck awkwardly.

"Stop looking so uncomfortable, I'm not going to ask you to do anything ridiculous. I just thought you might like to fly again."

Harry beamed, but then his face fell. "Umbridge has my broom."

"Yes, but she doesn't have mine."

Harry gaped. "I can borrow your broom?"

Ginny laughed. "Of course. I mean, it's not as good as your Firebolt but it's not bad…" here she was cut off by a certain raven haired boy hugging her. Harry let go quickly and started dragging her by the hand over to the Gryffindor tower. She laughed again.

"My broom is in one of the broom closets by the Quidditch pitch."

Harry whirled around and started pulling her along in the other direction. While she didn't mind holding Harry's hand, they would get there a lot faster if he stopped holding on to her. So Ginny pulled her hand free and took of running. "Race you!"

She bolted down the corridor with Harry hot on her heels.

**-ovo-**

The next morning dawned bright as Harry groggily made his way down to the Great Hall. He sat at the far end of the Gryffindor table with Hermione, Ron and Ginny as he told them what he and Dumbledore had talked about in his office, save for the Horcruxes. He saved that conversation for later.

"You really are getting much more powerful Harry." Hermione commented, a slight twinge of jealousy colouring her tone. She was poking at her food with her fork and looking rather sullen.

Ginny huffed. "Oh grow up Hermione, you have no business being jealous of Harry. No matter what, you are still the brightest witch our age." Hermione smiled at this.

"Yeah 'Mione, you are like a walking, talking reference book." Ron said, throwing his arm around her shoulders. She shrugged it off and glared at him. "So that's all I am to you? A reference book?" she stood up briskly and stormed off, her bushy hair whipping about behind her. Ron winced, "I didn't mean it like that! Hermione? Hermione!" He ran off after her.

"That," Harry muttered, "is getting really old, _really_ fast."

Ginny laughed.

"So tell me, what's really bothering you?" she inquired as Harry drank a large sip of pumpkin juice.

Harry choked and Ginny rubbed his back as he fought to regain use of his lungs. When he could breath normally once again, he glared at her. She ignored his anger and wiped some juice off his chin with a napkin.

"I'm having weird dreams," Harry grudgingly admitted after a while. "I keep dreaming about a door. But the door never opens. And in the dream, I'm desperate to see what's behind it. It's like an obsession."

Ginny was silent, listening intently.

"It keeps coming back, the dream I mean, and it doesn't even feel like it's mine. I'll be dreaming about something else, usually something stupid, and then this one will take its place. And this one will feel so _real_."

"Sometimes," Ginny mused, "the simplest answer is the right one. If you don't think it's your dream, then maybe it isn't. And if it feels unusually real, then maybe it is real. It sounds unlikely, I wont pretend it doesn't, but then again… not many things that happen in this castle are ever very likely are they?"

Harry blinked. "You did it again."

"What?"

"Made me feel better."

"Well, you're welcome" Ginny winked and stood up. "We should go. Classes start soon and you can't afford to miss anything, what with your OWL's drawing nearer."

The walked out of the Great Hall together surrounded by other students yet deeply immersed in their own bubble.

"You're starting to sound like Hermione! The OWL's are _ages_ away, it's not even Christmas yet."

Ginny shoved him lightly with her shoulder. "Maybe not. But it sure is starting to look like it." She motioned to a window.

The snow was falling hard and fast around Hogwarts and the sky was a dull, angsty grey. The sight did not have the warm and cozy feeling of Christmas, but rather the cold biting feel of sorrow.

"Yeah, it really gives you a sense of Christmas spirit doesn't it?" Harry commented.

"There is a storm brewing, and we better be ready when it hits." Luna Lovegood had at some point wandered up to them. She was wearing her odd cork necklace and had her wand placed behind her ear.

"Harry. We really need to talk. Ginny, why don't you come to?"

Harry followed Luna who started walking away and turned to give Ginny a confused look. But Ginny wasn't there. Startled, Harry turned around, looking for her; he found her sitting on the cold floor wearing a sour expression. Harry tried not to laugh.

"Did you just fall?"

Ginny sniffed. "No, I just attacked the floor."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Backwards?"

"Yes. I'm just that talented." Ginny quickly picked herself up and brushed past Harry with her head held high. Harry snickered and followed.


	5. Chapter 5

**Luna said you'd be a little confused. Not completely retarded.**

**-ovo-**

Ginny was aware that Luna was talking. She could see Luna's lips move and she could hear Luna's voice. But her brain wasn't quite able to make sense of it all.

The three of them, Ginny, Luna and Harry, were sitting in the Room of Requirement. Luna had a stone basin in her lap. She was telling them about travelling back in time and Harry was nodding along as if it made sense. Ginny didn't agree.

Luna then used her wand to draw out silvery strands from the stone basin in her lap and sort of flung them into Harry's left ear. After about five minutes of that her eyes turned all swirly and Ginny sort of zoned out. When she zoned in again Harry had collapsed and lay in a heap on the floor and Luna was humming a Christmas carol.

"Luna?"

"Yes Ginny?"

"Um… What the hell just happened?"

**-ovo-**

Ginny huffed. "Okay, so let me get this straight. You are from the future, or some sort of alternative reality. You've been "helping" Harry all summer by teaching him magic; you have been altering his memories since first year, using a pensive that does not display memories like a regular one does, but it actually extracts them completely; you've already explained all this to Dumbledore and now you just gave Harry all his memories at once causing him to pass out." She eyed Harry who was drooling on the ground and conjured a pillow for him, stuffing it unceremoniously under his cheek. "But you couldn't have been teaching Harry magic? There is a law about underage magic."

Luna beamed. "Well, during Harry's first year I studied runes. I found some that hid any magic that occurred within their perimeters. Quite convenient really."

Ginny yawned. It had taken Luna a few hours to explain everything and now she was thoroughly exhausted. "I don't get it though, why are you telling me this?"

"I'm playing matchmaker. I figured that when Harry wakes up, you too would have some sort of epic bonding moment and fall in love."

Ginny frowned. "But I don't fancy Harry. We're friends."

"Oh. Shit. I guess it was sixth year that you guys fell in love." Luna said.

Ginny chose to ignore that piece of information. "You aren't anything at all like the Luna I know. You sound so… erm, normal. And you curse a lot."

"Yes, well, it's hard to stay blissfully nutters when you see someone get ripped into shreds right in front of you, especially when they're stuck in a time loop. So you see it, over, and over, and over again."

Ginny gasped, horrifed. "Did that happen to you?"

"Well, no. But I imagine it would be awful."

"Well then why are you so unlike the Luna I know?"

"Because every time I hypnotize someone, a part of his or her personality gets absorbed into me. I probably have the most bland and normal personality ever by now."

"I gather you've hypnotized a lot of people then."

Luna laughed at that. "Oh Ginny, you have no idea."

They sat in silence for a while. Ginny yawned again.

"Even though you say you don't fancy Harry, he might be in love with you when he wakes up."

Ginny choked mid yawn. "Why?"

Luna grinned evilly as Ginny continued to choke on air.

"Well, I've been dropping not so subtle hints during my summers with him. It was great fun really." Luna giggled. "It wasn't so easy though, what with the singing valentine thing. That was apparently really traumatizing for Harry. Rather cute, isn't he?"

Ginny spluttered. "But that's so manipulative! Won't he be upset? And you can't talk somebody into liking somebody. Did you hypnotize him?"

Luna frowned. "You can't create real feelings that weren't there to start with. He didn't fancy you at all until he started talking to you. I merely made him intrigued. I gave him the match. He started the fire. And I would never hypnotize Harry, after all the time we've spent together… well, he's practically my little brother!"

"You're younger than him. Technically."

Luna huffed. "Whatever."

Ginny glared. "I still think it was manipulative."

"Yes it was. But honestly, people manipulate each other all the time. It's not like I forced him to do anything. I just talked about how wonderful you are; made him realize that although he pegged you for a fangirl, he didn't actually know you. I didn't lie. I didn't withhold any information. Not like Dumbledore."

"Hey!" Ginny exclaimed, feeling her temper rising. "Dumbledore is brilliant. He's the greatest wizard alive."

"He holds his cards too close to his chest. Life is a poker game to him and he has the best pokerface in the world."

"Who is she?"

Luna blinked. "You lost me. That's never happened before. Shit."

Ginny gaped at the utter panic in Luna's voice. "I- erm, ... You said, 'poke-her-face'. Who is 'her'?"

Luna placed a hand on her heart and breath a sigh of relief. "Thank god. _I_ lost _you_. I've still got it!"

They were both still sitting in the Room of Requirement, as they had been for quite a while. Ginny still wasn't sure why she was present, she was just sort of sitting there, doing nothing, but she didn't feel like it would be wise to argue with a time traveller. They know stuff, excellent blackmailing material, and Ginny was not about to mess with that.

"Who. Is. She?" Ginny said, her frustration growing with every new sentence added to the exceedingly weird conversation.

"Dumbledore's lover."

"Ew."

"Just messing with you. There is no she. 'Pokerface' is a facial expression. The expression one has when you don't have an expression. It's very useful in the game Poker."

"I liked you better before you messed up your personality by hypnotizing people."

"Yeah. I get that a lot."

**-ovo-**

Harry woke up on the floor of the Room of Requirement, more confused than he had ever been in his life. "I know how to apparate." He smiled. "I'm brilliant at transfiguration. Charms is easy. I can duel. And I, -bloody hell." Harry's voice took on a horrified tone. "I've read Hogwarts: A History."

"Good for you." Ginny commented. She was reading a book about a flock of flying unicorns, very boring stuff.

"_Ginny._" Harry said reverently. "You are _awesome_."

Ginny snorted.

"I feel really powerful." Harry commented.

"That's great."

"I want to kill Voldemort."

"Okay,"

"Wanna help?"

"Yeah, sure."

"He's immortal."

"Well, that'll make it complicated I guess."

"You have brown eyes."

"Yes, I do."

"Mine are green."

"Yup."

"Like the killing curse. They're killingly green. Like a Basilisk. It makes me totally badass."

"Harry, you will never, ever, be badass. And are you high?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"No."

"Luna said you'd be a little confused. Not completely retarded."

"HEY!"

"Get over it."

"My ass is bad. Badass. Get it? Bad ass, BAD."

"_Stupify_."

Silence.

"That was totally uncalled for!"

"Hey! I stupified you. You're supposed to be stupefied!"

"Yeah, well I'm totally powerful now."

"Look, you can't exactly be all that amazing. You've had what, four summers of sporadic training? People don't learn how to resist curses that fast."

"Okay fine, I used a silent shield charm. It's also invisible. Cool huh?"

"No you didn't. Spells aren't invisible."

"I apparated on the spot..?"

"Silently and so fast that I didn't see you? Yeah right."

"Maybe I'm just that good."

"You aren't."

"Ginny, you're making my ass feel very good."

_Silence._

"NO! I didn't mean it like that! Shit. I just meant that my ass didn't feel bad anymore. As in, 'I don't feel badass.'"

"Harry?"

"Yes Ginny?"

"Please sleep so that your brain can get itself sorted out."

"Okay."

_Silence._

Luna chose that moment to make her self heard, "Are you unhappy?"

Ginny frowned. "No..?"

"Yes, yes you are. Why?"

Ginny huffed. (She'd been doing that a lot lately.) "Fine, so I'm not chipper. But Umbridge is being a foul toad and Harry is losing his mind and Voldemort is back. Yaaaay! There is probably going to be a war and" Ginny swallowed. "Harry and my family, we're all so deeply involved, someone could die."

"Fred died. Remus Lupin died. Nymphadora Tonks died. Colin Creevy died. Hagrid died. Dumbledore died. Sirius Black died. But Harry was victorious." Ginny looked stricken, but Luna continued. "The battle was quite epic you know. Harry started it all by throwing a shield charm on your mother I believe. Or it might have been you. It's all a little fuzzy now. It was weird standing in the crowd. We had all always looked up to Harry of course, and he's always been a leader, but this was so heroic, it was so big. Harry talked, taunted Voldemort, before killing him with an Expelliarmus. We watched, held our breath." Luna gazed off into nothing, seeing things that Ginny could not. "Don't ever underestimate the guy currently drooling on the floor. He died for all of us. And then he came back."

Ginny was silent.

"Imagine being hated as a kid. It's probably a ridiculous concept for a child of Molly's. But still, try to imagine. Think what it would be like to find out that strangers loved you, for something you didn't remember, something you secretly wished hadn't even happened because it had ripped away a life that could have been happier, warmer. An ugly thought isn't it? Imagine finding someone who was like both a father and a brother to you, learning to love him, before seeing him die in front of you." Luna's voice was fierce.

"Imagine watching a class mate die at the hands of your enemy, for the sole reason of being to close to you, to close to danger. Imagine the guilt. I could never handle it without turning bitter." Luna's voice softened. "Harry is so strong. It's- it's unbelievable really. Those people I mentioned earlier will not die Ginny. Not this time. So, yeah."

"Luna, you're not supposed to end a heartfelt speech with 'so, yeah.'"

"I ran out of momentum. Speeches are hard."

"So, no war?"

"No war."

"Wassup..?" Harry was only half conscious.

"Nothing, we were just talking about bad your ass is."

"What?"

"You don't remember?"

"No…? What's wrong with my bum?" Harry blushed.

"Oh thank god, he's back to normal." Ginny muttered. "Can we please leave this room now? I don't even know why we spent so much time here in the first place. And why was Harry sleeping on the floor when he could've wished for a bed? And wouldn't someone have come looking for us by now? This makes no sense."

"An excellent deduction Holmes." Luna replied, dusting herself off before leaving.

"Why did she call me 'Holmes'?" Ginny muttered.

"Is no one going to comment on the fact that I have four summers worth of skills now?"

"No. Go read Hogwarts: A History again."

Harry scowled and walked out of the room, leaving Ginny to ponder all that had transpired. After a moment she concluded that she was in desperate need of a headache remedy. And why was Sirius Black's death was so significant? He was a mass murderer. Surely his death would be… good? She sighed, stood up and left.

"Hogwarts has always been weird. But this is just ridiculous." Ginny muttered, closing the door behind her.

"BOO!"

"AAHHRRG!" Ginny spun around, her heart beating wildly. "Ron? What the hell!"

**-ovo-**

"So, long story short, Luna was randomly sent back in time and ended up in my bedroom at Privet Drive. She started reading my textbooks with me, talking to me about magic and just generally taking care of me. Before my first year she fixed my memories so I wouldn't remember her and then she took of to America were she researched Runes and other types of magic. During the summer before my second year she had figured out how to create an area within the Blood Protection of Privet Drive were we could do magic without the Ministry finding out. Before you ask Hermione, no I don't know how she did that, ask her."

Harry took a deep breath.

"This continued for two more summers during which she taught me to cast spells silently, apparate and lots and lots about transfiguration, hoping to make it easier for me too become an Animagus later on. Apparently Luna knows how to hypnotize people by the way, cool huh? Anyway, so then after my fourth year Dumbledore started keeping a much closer watch over me. So, Luna couldn't reach me."

Ron sneezed.

"An interesting fact, when you confine magic in a small area like Luna and I did without "airing" the area out, the magic gets sucked back into you. So that's why I've been experiencing so much accidental magic. I'm totally powerful now. Anyway, where was I? Oh, so anyway then a while ago Luna cornered me in school, but we were interrupted by the other Luna. Then the old Luna got sucked into regular Luna's ear and they both merged into one. Then Luna took Ginny and I into the Room of Requirement and gave me all my memories back, she told me about everything and then I passed put while my brain processed all the memories. The great thing though, is that I know I can kill Voldemort. I've done it before! It's just like when I saw myself fight the dementors is my third year."

"And that was long story short, mate?"

"Er, yeah."

"Good to know."

Hermione tapped her chin. "So what now?"

Harry smirked. "Well, I'm going to go hunt down some Horcruxes, now that I know exactly were they all are, and then I'm going to kill Voldemort. After that, well… I guess it would be about time for sixth year."

Hermione looked bemused. "This seems very anticlimactic."

Harry shrugged. "It's going to be pretty epic actually. For what Luna's told me, I have to die first. Apparently I'll be the boy-who-lived, twice."

Ron rubbed his hands together. "So where are the Horcruxes."

"Ron, chillax. We have to plan this stuff carefully."

"Um, Harry? That sounds very Slytherin."

"Good."

**-ovo-**

Harry cleared his throat as he surveyed the DA members. They were all staring back at him, although one or two were staring at Luna, who was hovering slightly behind him, as she always was these days. She was like a persistent shadow that liked to randomly slip memories into his ear. Just that morning at breakfast he had learnt that he could conjure a small pyramid, roughly the size of a minivan. Why he would ever find such a skill useful, Harry did not know, but it was still pretty cool.

"I wonder if you know what you are up against." Harry said to the teenagers before him. "What are you fighting for?"

There was a beat of silence.

"You-know-who. Like, duh. And we are fighting because it's the right thing to do. We need to know how to defend ourselves against Death Eaters." The Huffelpuff who had spoken popped her chewing gum, the Ravenclaw next to her sniffed at her.

Harry scrunched his brow. "Well, yes. But no, no not at all." Neville looked confused. He wasn't alone. "Look, how many of you are purebloods?" Three people raised their hands. "Why are you fighting? Voldemort doesn't want to kill you?"

"I just sort of want to pass my Defence OWLs" one of them said nervously.

Luna tried to suppress her snigger, she really did. "Look Harry," she whispered. "Maybe today isn't the day for this speech, your heart isn't in it."

Harry glared at her. "Don't you have a useful memory about this that you could give me?"

Luna rolled her eyes. "It's not like we had time to cover_ everything_ during the summers."

Harry simply raised his eyebrow. "Do you or don't you have a memory for me?"

Luna sighed. "Dobby!" Dobby popped into existence. "Yes miss?" Luna smiled at him. "Could you bring me my pensive please?" Dobby nodded vigorously and snapped his fingers, the pensive appearing next to him, suspended in mid air.

Luna grabbed the pensive and poked through it impatiently with her wand, whooping triumphantly as she found the right silver blob. With a smile she flicked the memory up and onwards with her wand. Harry, with his reflexes of steel, caught the memory in his open mouth and swallowed it. The memory tickled and stung as it made it's way down his esophagus.

Luna cringed. "You aren't supposed to swallow memories Harry."

Harry coughed and spluttered, "I noticed."

He was long used to the dizzying feeling of a memory-rush, as he liked to call it, and he didn't black out anymore as a select moment of his life flashed before his eyes. Luna had only given him the "big" memories the first time and was gradually easing into the "small" ones. According to her, she didn't want to risk overloading his brain to the point of insanity. He didn't know if he should be insulted by her lack of faith in his ability to retain information or if he should be grateful that she hadn't messed him up completely.

It was… disconcerting… for him to suddenly find out so much about his old life. Harry found himself almost thinking of it as someone else's memories. The little boy from his memory who worked hard and was so diligent and determined to learn didn't exactly translate to the lazy laid-back view of studying he had presently. Sometimes, as he pondered some of these memories, he found himself in awe of the raw magical force of the boy in the memories, and then he would spend a large amount of time smirking when he remembered that it was his power, _his _magical force. It boggled him what he was capable of. Vanishing a snail was now easy breezy. Hell, he could probably vanish a horse!

Luna had explained to him how he had absorbed excess magic from within the ward they had practiced spells in. Harry didn't understand it fully, but then again, he didn't really understand how Luna had gone back in time in the first place. There were lots of things Harry did not understand, but magic was no longer one of those things.

The months he had spent sucking up magic like a sponge had made him very in tuned to it. Luna had said that all the accidental magic he had been experiencing was due to all the pressure that had built up when he no longer rid himself of excess magic through training.

The memory Luna had slipped him now was of a conversation between them after his second year. It was about prejudice, Tom Riddle, and power. Harry smiled as the beginnings of a long rant built up inside of him. He turned to the Hufflepuff with the gum.

"Wrong" he said. "You are utterly wrong."

The room was silent as all the members gave him their attention.

"Those against us, those fighting us, those trying to kill us, they believe that pureblood should mean something. They believe that magic is sacred and that it shouldn't be diluted. They are scared that the closer we grown to the muggle community, the more our traditions and values will be lost. They have a point." He let this wash over the ones who were listening. He watched them grow angry. "And yet, they are stupid and senseless. A leader who does not even fit their mold has taken advantage of them. They kill and slaughter without speaking out for what they believe. They haven't even considered that with a skilled tongue and considerable political force they could easily enforce what they believe. No, instead they follow Tom Riddle, a half-blood whose sole reason for not liking muggles is based on bitterness over the fact that he grew up as an orphan. Tom Riddle wants power, not pure blood. He wants the world. He can't have it."

Shocked silence followed his speech as members of the DA tried to process what Harry had said.

"So… You Know Who is a halfblood? That's…. unexpected." Terry Boot said.

Harry sighed. "Yes, this whole thing is completely messed up. So, anyway, who wants to learn how to fight off a dementor?"

**A/N**  
So i'm insanely happy that so many people seem to actually like this mess of a story. It makes me feel warm and fuzzy inside.


	6. Chapter 6

**Duelling and Snogging. Not necessarily in that order.**

**-ovo-**

Ginny walked through the portrait and surveyed the room. The golden trio was sitting in three comfortable chairs by the fire. There was no other chair available. They were talking in low voices, obviously discussing something secret. Ginny, however, was determined. Luna had, in her own twisted way, made it clear that Ginny was supposed to be a part of whatever it was that was happening to Harry and she wasn't going to let a missing chair stop her. So, she walked briskly over to where they were sitting and plopped down in Harry's lap. Ron frowned.

"Ginny, we were actually in the middle of something." Hermione said, delicately trying to point out that Ginny had chosen a bad time to interrupt. Ginny ignored her.

"Harry, tell me more about the Horcruxes." Ginny said

Ron and Hermione looked confused but Harry's eyes widened. "You know about that?"

"About what?" Ron whined.

"Luna told me. She slipped me a memory of her telling you. It was really weird because the memory was from your point of view and you are a mess."

"Come again?" Harry asked.

"Well, you see the world through a murky sarcastic haze." Ginny sighed. "It's very depressing. Stop being so broody."

Harry poked her in the ribs, making her squeal.

"Will you two stop?" Ron said, rolling his eyes. "I know you've mentioned Horcruxes, but you've been foggy about what they are, care to explain?"

Harry cleared his throat. "Okay, so, Horcruxes are basically a piece of ones soul stuck in an object. If you were to die, the piece of your soul still residing in the object would live on. You would be immortal. A Horcrux could be anything. A shoe, a doorknob or…" Harry glanced at Ginny, "A diary."

Hermione gasped as Ginny paled.

"Voldemort made seven. Luna told me about six of them, but she was hesitant about the last one. The diary was the first one he made, but I destroyed that one already. Another one is Helga Huffelpuffs cup, located in Bellatrix Lestranges vault at Gringotts. Apparently, in Luna's old reality, we broke into Gringotts using polujuice potion, managed to fool the goblins up until we passed something on the way to the vault, stole the cup, and then blasted out of Gringotts on a blind dragon." Harry puffed out his chest and looked at Ginny. "I told you I was badass."

She rolled her eyes and Harry continued with his story "I wouldn't have believed Luna if she hadn't shown me a memory of the older me telling her."

"Wicked." Ron breathed.

"We rode on a dragon?" Ginny asked shakily, still upset about the fact that she had explained the complicated relationship between her teddy Mr Puffles and her stuffed bunny Mr Rabbity in detail to a piece of Voldemort's soul. It was slightly mind boggling.

"Er, no. You didn't. You were back at Hogwarts, leading a rebellion."

Ginny smiled. "Well, at least I was doing something. Why the rebellion though?"

"Snape was headmaster."

Hermione frowned. "Why?"

"Dumbledore was dead." Harry said, not sounding like he quite believed it himself.

Ron's jaw hit the floor with a load thud. "Who killed him?"

"He'd been cursed by a ring- one of the Horcruxes- so he planned it all out with Snape to save Draco."

"I don't understand" Ginny said.

"Look, does it really matter? That stuff is so depressing. Who wants to talk about people dying? Dead people are gross. They're all cold and… blue." Harry crinkled his nose. "Lets talk about my epic plan to kill Voldemort instead!"

Ginny coughed, "And, er, what exactly does this plan of yours entail?"

Harry furrowed his brow. "Er… Accio Horcruxes?"

Hermione was just about to huff in exasperation when Harry's forehead unexpectedly smacked into his wand. They all stared at him incredulously.

Harry cleared his throat. "I have a really bad feeling about this."

"Er, Harry, did you just Accio your own head?" Ron asked.

"Blimey, what If I have a Horcrux in my head!"

"Chill Harry, maybe it's something easy to remove. Like a tooth or an arm."

"I'd rather keep my arm actually."

Colin Creevy, who calmly floated past and above Ginny's head, interrupted their talk. The Golden Trio and their _plus one_ watched the boy float in silence, even as his button got caught in Hermione's frizz. But when Colin Creevy, button and all, kept floating away and while Hermione remained stationary, chaos erupted in the form of pained shrieks.

"MY HAIR! OW OOW! COLIN!"

"NO! Hermione QUIET, Colin accidently ate emo fairydust today, if you yell at him and make him think negative thoughts, he'll only float higher!" Neville yelled from across the common room.

But it was too late. Colin sighed as he floated higher and soon Hermione was standing on her tiptoes to avoid the intense tugging. "I'm sorry Hermione." Colin said, rising higher at the thought of having caused someone pain.

"COLIN DON'T YOU DARE."

Ron ran over to the pair and whisked Hermione up onto his shoulders, hoping to prevent Hermione's hair from falling off completely. She gained some extra height and started trying to say positive things to Colin who by now seemed close to tears.

"Colin, it's okay, you're awesome really. So handsome and kind! And the way you fell into the lake that first year was so sexy. Just think happy thoughts Colin, okay? Happy! YAAAAYY! RAINBOWS!"

By now, everyone in the common room was giving Hermione seriously weirded-out looks. Ron couldn't exactly give her a weird look without detaching his head from his body and hoisting it up in the air, due to the fact that Hermione was on his shoulders, but he did his best.

Slowly, as Dennis started contemplating happiness and rainbows, he sank lower and Ginny took advantage of that fact by rushing up to him and cutting off his button with a severing charm. Hermione took on look at the button embedded in her hair, no longer attached to a floating boy high on emo fairydust, and started smiling broadly. "I'm free," she whispered emotionally, stroking her hair. "Ron, you can let me down now."

Unceremoniously, Ron flung her unto a couch before plopping down next to her. Ginny had gone back to being perched on Harry's lap, something that Harry seemed quite pleased about. Just as Hermione was about to open her mouth to say… something, Luna waltzed over to them and touched Harry's arm lightly.

"Luna, how did you get into the common room?" Ginny asked.

"Neville."

"Oh."

Harry looked down at where Luna's hand was touching his arm, before looking back up at Luna.

"Harry could you come with me?"

"Sure."

Ginny stood up from her spot so that Harry could pass and then she watched the two as they walked out, passing the Fat Lady.

**-ovo-**

"So Harry," Luna said as she glanced at him. They were standing in the Room of Requirement that was completely bare and blindingly white. Harry thought it looked ridiculously creepy. "I thought it might be a good idea to test the skills I've given you. How about a duel?"

Harry swallowed nervously. "Okay."

"Great!" Luna said, smiling mischievously. "Stupify!"

Harry blocked her and sent a spell back that she in turn, blocked as well. But Luna was more graceful than Harry and after a while she hit him with a disarming spell. Harry sighed in defeat but Luna kept throwing spells at him. Wide-eyed, Harry started dodging the spells that he noticed were getting increasingly dangerous. After a bludgeoning spell wizzed passed his left ear, Harry felt himself getting mad. The madder he got, the more he could feel his magic crackling along his skin. A couple of strong stinging hexes later, Harry started sending hexes back towards Luna with his bare hands. Luna smiled before starting to move faster.

Harry would catch the spell Luna threw at him in his hand and then throw it back. He didn't know how he was doing it, probably some weird form a shield spell, but it worked and that was enough for Harry. The spells were flying very quickly now, and the adrenaline was pumping faster in Harry's veins. As Luna ducked under a particularly well-aimed curse, Harry felt the crackling under his skin reach its climax. With a roar, a pulse of magic left Harry, and swept towards a frightened looking Luna. The magic was golden and for a moment it seemed to consume Luna completely before it backlashed and was absorbed back into Harry. When Harry got over his shock, he rushed over to Luna who lay on the ground. She appeared to be sleeping.

Harry poked her.

Nothing happened.

Harry grabbed his wand from Luna's pocket and pointed it at her. "Renervate!" Luna blinked and sat up slowly.

"That was great. Good work Harry!"

Harry smiled nervously.

"We'll talk about what happened later. I'm hungry. Bye!" Luna stood up and walked away, whistling. As soon as she left the Room turned into a copy of the common room. Harry smiled as he curled up on one of the couches and fell asleep.

**-ovo-**

Ron grabbed Ginny by the arm and started dragging him off to god knows where. When Ginny spotted Harry walking towards her and felt Ron starting to pull her towards him, Ginny started resisting, but Ron was stronger.

"Ron I don't like him like that." Ginny hissed. Ron just laughed.

"Hey Harry!" He bellowed.

"What?"

"Come here for a sec."

"What?" Harry sounded suspicious. Very suspicious.

"Ginny, kiss Harry."

Harry instantly blushed and spluttered. So did Ginny.

"I… er… what?.. no…. why?" She was a blushing spluttering mess and Ron shook his head sadly. Time to make her do what he said in the only way he knew how.

"Ginny. I dare you."

Just as Ron had expected, Ginny lifted his chin defiantly and grabbed Harry's shoulders lightly before kissing him softly. Harry waved his arms around a bit, trying to figure out if he should push Ginny away. Ron smirked and started counting.

"3…"

Harry stopped flailing and slowly lowered his arms.

"2…"

Ginny tilted her head a little to make it easier for Harry to snog her.

"1…"

And off he went, kissing Ginny with such passion that the poor girl stumbled a bit before regaining her balance. After only a few seconds Harry's left hand was buried in the red heads hair and his other one was inching lower on the small of her back. Ron made a face before walking off.

**-ovo-**

**And this was the end of chappie number six… umm… yeah…  
So, I'm bored. The next chapter will wrap this story up and it's going to be SHORT.  
****And weird. I'll through in a few outtakes or something to make it less dull.  
YAY **


	7. Chapter 7

**Hi!**

**So obviously this is not an update... Sorry..?  
Anyway, here's the thing (s) :**

**1. **I just realized that I don't really have reason for Luna messing things up. I mean according to her,  
everything turns out pretty okay in the end so why bother?  
So I figured that maybe it was sort of an, "while I'm here I might as well" sort of thing. But that's a pretty lame excuse.

**2. **...shit... what was 2...? umm... uh... I hate when this happens... I swear there was a 2... or..? ...whatever.

**3. **How the *BEEEP* am I supposed to wrap up this story without pulling an "ACCIO HORCRUX!" or a random magically binding contract?  
(It's a rethorical question. If you have an answer than feel free to plagurize my fic and write your own ending.)  
I swear I wont mind unless you get like famous or something. If you do get famous then I totally mind.

In fact, If you get famous I will totally TAKE YOU DOWN BITCH.  
Sorry... I'm tired?

**4. **Like, seriously, this is like, totally O.M.G but I like, realized that I like  
TOTALLY write like a bubblegum-popping pigtail wearing weirdo. And I'm not sure if I'm like totally okay with that. Oh Em GEEE..?

**So because of these 4 (..3?) points, I've decided not to write the ending to this story. But then I did anyway. Funny how that happens sometimes.**

****

**Anyway, here is my brilliantly thought through ending:**

_Dear Ron,_

_Thanks for daring Ginny to snog me. It was really decent of you mate.  
Anyway, we're both living happily ever after after  
having ridden into the sunset on a white thestral.  
Because yeah, white thestrals excist. I clearly did NOT spend an hour painting the damn thing just because Ginny  
thought it would make the whole thing so much more romantic. Really, I didn't. _

_I defeated Voldemort. I know you were there and saw the whole thing, but y'know I'm just going to  
throw that out there incase someone reads this who totally missed the whole epic final battle scene.  
So, anyway, Voldemort was like "HI" and I was like "POOF" and he was like *dead*.  
Luna just frolicked around stabbing horcruxes. She's badass like that. Then she married her invisible friend. His name is Mark._

_Hope you and Hermione aren't being to gross._

_Love and glitter,  
Harry P. _

**-ovo-**

Fate walked back to his pride and joy; The Chutes and Ladders game. He was brimming with anticipation, thinking that he had finally succeeded in ruffling Harry Potters feathers beyond repair.

But he was deeply disappointed.

Harry Potter was happier than ever and everything was once again as it should be. Pandemonium was nowhere to be found. "Damn him." Fate muttered while glaring at the game.

Fate turned and stalked off, pouting like a child. He rummaged through a few cupboards and pulled forth a dusty box, opening it and carefully pulling out the things within. Then he snapped his fingers and called forth yet another Harry Potter reality. Fate had quite a few; he was after all, grudgingly intrigued by the boy.

"Come Potter, let's play Hang Man."

The END!

**Clearly, I have problems.  
I hope you liked this clusterfuck as much as I thoroughly enjoyed writing it. **

**Reviews are like double rainbows and unicorns and candy and pizza and the little fuzzy lint in your navel. (GASP EW)**

**!y********dobyreve ouy knahT**


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